SteynOnline

The Autocrat Accountants

Speaking at Ohio State University earlier this month, Barack Obama urged students to pay no attention to those paranoid types who "incessantly warn of government as nothing more than some separate, sinister entity." Oddly enough, in recent days the most compelling testimony for this view of government has come from the president himself, who insists with a straight face that he had no idea that the Internal Revenue Service had spent two years targeting his political enemies until he "learned about it from the same news reports that I think most people learned about this." Like you, all he knows is what he reads in the papers. Which is odd, because his Justice Department is bugging those same papers, so you'd think he'd at least get a bit of a heads-up. But no doubt the fact that he's wiretapping the Associated Press was also entirely unknown to him until he read about it in the Associated Press. There is a "president of the United States" and a "government of the United States," but, despite a certain superficial similarity in their names, they are entirely unrelated, like Beyoncé Knowles and Admiral Sir Charles Knowles. One golfs, reads the prompter, parties with Jay-Z, and guests on the Pimp with a Limp show, and the other audits you, bugs your telephone line, and leaks your confidential tax records. But they're two completely separate sinister entities. So it's preposterous to describe Obama as Nixonian: Beyoncé wouldn't have given Nixon the time of day.

Continue Reading

SteynOnline Audio Extra

Milt! Thou Should'st Be Living At This Hour

Send

…America hath need of thee. One of the big blows on the airwaves at the end of last year was the departure of Milt Rosenberg from WGN in Chicago. For almost four decades, he'd been a nightly fixture doing the best interviews with everyone from Mrs Thatcher to Barack Obama. Mark enjoyed the show both as a listener and as a guest, and was disappointed on both counts when WGN and Milt parted company at the end of last year.

Milt is now back doing what he does best via a new daily podcast, "The Milt Rosenberg Show", looking beyond the issues of the day to the big ideas underpinning them. And Mark is honored to be the first guest on the new show. To listen, simply click here.

Continue Reading